Pink champagne - where does true value lie?

The one sure fire recent trend in the wine market worldwide has been the rehabilitation of rosé, which has sent demand for and prices of pink champagne soaring. It’s presumably therefore to draw attention to themselves that UK wine retailers Majestic announce a blanket 40% off all rosé champagne, provided two bottles are bought. The offer lasts until 29 Oct, or until stocks last.

This double bubble business brings the price of their most basic pink fizz Oeil de Perdrix Rosé down from £22.99 to £13.79 and that of the highly sought after Laurent Perrier Rosé down from a pretty ridiculous £54.99 to an at-least-thinkable £32.99. In between these two extremes, provided two bottles are bought, the new Canard-Duchêne Rosé can be had for £15.99, Piper-Heidsieck Rosé Sauvage for £22.49, pink versions of Taittinger and Perrier-Jouët Blason are down from £39.99 to £23.99 and Veuve Clicquot Rosé is reduced from am eye-watering £49.99 to a merely mildly stinging £29.99.

I have to say however that I’d be tempted more by the single-bottle, week in week out, value offered by the earthy but characterful Alexandre Bonnet Rosé from the Aube whose full price at Waitrose is £18.99 (and is occasionally reduced to £13.99) and Lavenue Rosé from Duval Leroy whose regular price at Marks & Spencer has been £20.99.

The big champagne houses’ prices are in general a bit of a bad joke on us image-conscious consumers but the prices of pink champagne from the big houses have got really out of hand.